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A diminutive of the female given name Isabel. quotations examples
Her brothers call Mary Poor Mary, and indeed the meagreness and timidity of many of the women in their family has caused that word to be attached to the names they were given at their christening ― names that were themselves altered into something less substantial and graceful. Isabel became Poor Tibbie, Margaret, Poor Maggie, Jane, Poor Jennie.
2006, Alice Munro, The View from Castle Rock, Chatto & Windus, page 36